There is a great Magic Key that unlocks the door to the human heart and gains welcome admittance for all who use it.
This great key, if it were universally used, would make wars impossible.
It would take away all desire to defraud a brother out of that which is his.
It would unlock the door to the storehouse of all knowledge and show us the peace and joy and happiness and success that come from understanding the human heart.
It would insure us supreme happiness.
It would insure us all of life's necessities and as many of the luxuries as we cared to indulge in.
And, what is this Great Magic Key?
It is the GOLDEN RULE!
If we all understood the law back of the Golden Rule we would see the necessity of becoming our brother's keeper. Strikes and lockouts would be absurdities that no civilized country would tolerate. Profiteering would bring swift failure to all who were foolish enough to undertake it.
If you want to know what is just and fair in your dealings with your neighbors, reverse every situation which you are about to create for the other fellow and see yourself in his place. If you would not be DELIGHTED to take his place and let him take yours, you may be sure the transaction does not square up with the Golden Rule.
You may be sure, also, that sooner or later the eternal scales will be balanced and you, yourself, will stand in exactly the same situation that you created for your fellowman.
Source: Napoleon Hill's Magazine. June, 1921. Pg. 1.
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( 3 / 312 )6. Set or get deadlines for your tasks. When setting yourself a task or getting one from someone else - always find out when it needs to be done. Then diarize an appropriate amount of reminders before the due date.
7. Work/life balance seem to be the buzz words all over the world at present - but you really do need to put time and energy into this area. Schedule in time to relax, time with family, time reading, time with your partner - if it's in your diary and you are committed to it, you're less likely to neglect it.
8.My desk at work is my haven. My trays work for me. Now I can't tell you what the best desk system is for you, all I know is that if yours doesn't make your day easier - change it, constantly change it until you get something that works. For me, I don't allow anyone to put anything on my desk. My assistant is allowed to put things in one tray and one tray only, everything else is put in my communal pigeon hole. I have a single out tray - this simple tray stops me from getting up 20 or 30 times a day as much of what comes in to me needs to go elsewhere in the office. I have a tray full of non urgent things to read, when I get time, I start going through it. I have a tray full of things I'm waiting on others for and I have an email folder full of these sorts of emails - my diary prompts me with a recurring reminder to check through these two areas. Whatever works for you, works for you, just take some time to find it!
9. Don't be afraid to ask for help. What's worse - asking for help once or doing the task incorrectly or incompletely 5 times, or even worse, hiding the work! It happens, don't be a victim of the "scared to ask" disease.
10. Your mind isn't a computer, use your computer to help your mind become like one. Each week on a Friday a little reminder comes up in Outlook telling me to send out my weekly email. Each week on a Wednesday I'm told I have two meetings first up. You're not a machine; use your technology to its best advantage.
Kirsty Dunphey is an author, speaker and entrepreneur who started her first business at 15, opened her own real estate agency at 21 and retired a self-made multi-millionaire at 27.
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( 2.9 / 278 )"Until you value yourself... you will not value your time; until you value your time... you will not do anything with it." - M. Scott Peck, Author
Time management, as anyone who works with me would know, is one of my big complaints, issues, concerns. It's also one of the most frequent things that people rate themselves lowest on in things like performance reviews.
Today I want to provide you with some simple tips to improve your time management, efficiency and productivity that work for me. Fingers crossed and there may be a few here that work for you too!
1. Eliminate these words from your vocabulary: "I don't have time." This one's a tough one, and although this is one of my aims I'll admit that sometimes they do slip out, but my aim is consistent - to eliminate them. The next time you go to say those dreaded words, just remember - you have exactly the same amount of time as everyone else, you have exactly the same amount of time in your day as the Olympic swimmer who gets up at 4am, you have the same amount of time in your day as presidents and world leaders who run entire countries. Eliminate the words because what you're really trying to say is: "I don't want to make time to do that," and that's quite alright too! The next time you go to say “I don't have time,” imagine if that task you're saying you don't have time for was a family member at a hospital - you'd have time to get there, so what you really need to decide is, "Does this deserve my time?"
2. It's an oldie but a goody - start each day by getting rid of your most despised task. Nothing ruins a day like dreading a task you have to do later in the day.
3. Set rewards for yourself if you can achieve all your tasks, find out what motivates you. For me - it might be that if I can get through these three hard tasks I can eat some of the doughnuts that one of my team brought into work today. Another great thing about that reward is that if I procrastinate - the doughnuts will be gone! Another great thing to do is to buddy up with someone and become accountability partners for getting your tasks done.
4. Unless you have the world’s best memory (I don't), make lists. When someone gives you a responsibility, write it down, whether you record it in your phone, your organizer, email yourself, write it on the back of a napkin - it doesn't matter how, write it down! Nothing's worse than the feeling of waking up in the middle of the night thinking - oh no, I forgot to do that.
5. I've never been a huge believer in labeling tasks A, B, C, in order of their importance. I've tried this system and it doesn't work for me - of course that doesn't mean it won't work for you. What I try to do instead is what I call Little Things First. What this means is that when I get an email, if it's small or has a small task, I'll get rid of it quickly rather than continually come back to it over and over again. I have many recurring tasks in my diary and the small things on my list are gone by about 10:30am usually, leaving me the bulk of my day to work on larger projects.
Please watch out for the next 5 steps in next month's E-News.
"Nothing is a waste of time...if you use the experience wisely." - Rodin
Kirsty Dunphey is an author, speaker and entrepreneur who started her first business at 15, opened her own real estate agency at 21 and retired a self-made multi-millionaire at 27.
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( 2.9 / 291 )The story below should present a solid example of how one would changes their life if they choose to take charge and control.
Kyle Maynard life will be full of agonies, complaints and depression of he choose to look at his disabilities form ‘normal’ perspective or the ‘victim’ side of equation. However he choose to be a ‘victor’ instead of a ‘victim’ and he work his life assuming he is not a handicapped person. His inner strength is something we should envy for. We could wonder what he can achieve if he is not what he is today i.e. a perfect normal man is a regular guy with a love to compete. He knows that to truly live you must set your sights on a goal and never give up. The fire that burns in his belly helped propel him to contend for the Georgia state high school wrestling championship in 2004. Not such a big deal you might say – except for the remarkable fact that Kyle has no arms or legs. He was born a congenital amputee – his arms ending at his elbows, his legs at his knees.
The first time I saw Kyle on an ESPN special (he won an ESPY award for the Best Athlete with a Disability in 2004) I was immediately struck by how normal he seemed. During the special, they showed Kyle doing all of the things that any other person or athlete would do.
He spoke with passion and conviction and he never left me with the impression that the world owed him anything. I was amazed to see him training hard, lifting weights – he has cannon balls for shoulders. Using a specially designed attachment, he was pushing more than double his own body weight. I was instantly inspired to learn more about this amazing person.
From the beginning, Kyle’s parents, Anita and Scott, were determined to raise a normal child. They insisted that he learned to feed himself and play with the other kids like any other child would do.
When Kyle saw other kids picking up crayons with their fingers, he learned to pick them up by using the crease in his short, but sensitive biceps.
His grandmother Betty was a source of inspiration and would often take him to the grocery store where she would instill a sense of confidence by encouraging Kyle to sit up and look folks in the eye and smile. He was fitted with prosthetic devices at a young age, but quickly dismissed them because they were too restrictive. He wanted to be free to run and play just like the other kids and those devices kept him from doing so.
Kyle led an active childhood. He played street hockey with his friends (he was the goalie) and in sixth grade was able to make the football team. Kyle hung tough on the football team, but his physical differences put him at a disadvantage against other players. Eventually, his father encouraged him to try another sport that would put Kyle on an even plane with his competition – wrestling.
Kyle started wrestling in sixth grade. He lost his first 35 matches in a row. During this period of time, Kyle had to dig deep to find the confidence to continue. Kyle however, was a warrior and he didn’t like to lose. With the support of his father, a former wrestler, he learned to train with weights, became very strong and learned some moves unique to his strengths. Kyle overcame the self-doubt he felt during his early wrestling days and became a winner. In his senior year, Kyle won 35 times on the varsity squad and qualified for the state championship. In the state tournament, Kyle won his first three matches and had to face his final opponent with a broken nose. Although Kyle did not win the state championship, he gained a level of self-confidence and became a source of inspiration for everyone that he met.
Kyle graduated high school and attends the University of Georgia, where he continues to wrestle and inspire others. As a member of the Washington Speaker’s Bureau, Kyle is regularly asked to give motivational talks. But what he has to say has little to do with his perceived physical differences. Rather, he talks of overcoming fear and doubt and what it takes to compete and win – just as any other champion would do. To this day, Kyle has never been pinned by an opponent. What a fitting metaphor for his life.
An excerpt from Finish Strong by Dan Green
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( 2.8 / 201 )My colleague, Dr. Michael O'Connor, and I have spent a combined 50 years studying personalities and how to deal with them.
We've taught hundreds of thousands of people how to handle people the way those people want to be handled... to speak to them in the way they are comfortable listening... to sell to people the way they like to buy...to lead people in ways that are comfortable for them to follow.
In business especially, people all too often create tension and discomfort by assuming we're all pretty much alike. In fact, most of us, if asked about a philosophy of personal relations, probably would recall The Golden Rule .
But literally following The Golden Rule --treating people the way you'd like to be treated--can turn off those who have different needs, wants and hopes. Instead, the real key to lasting success in business is to apply The Platinum Rule: "DO UNTO OTHERS AS THEY'D LIKE DONE UNTO THEM".
Using The Platinum Rule means learning to figure out others, then handling them in a way that puts them at ease.
Each of us telegraphs our personality style by the way we shake hands, how our office looks, whether we're crisp or chatty on the phone--and in scores of other ways. The trick is learning to spot those signals, identify the other person's style, then adjust our own behavior to lessen conflict.
Basically, everyone exhibits one of these four styles:
1. DIRECTORS: Firm and forceful, confident and competitive, decisive and determined risk-takers. While their impatience sometimes causes eyes to roll, the DIRECTORS leave no doubt who sits at the head of the table.
2. SOCIALIZERS: Outgoing, optimistic, enthusiastic people who like to be in the center of things. SOCIALIZERS have lots of ideas and love to talk, especially about themselves.
3. RELATERS: Genial team players who prefer stability over risk and who care greatly about the feelings and needs of others. They're likeable but sometimes too timid.
4. THINKERS: Self-controlled and considerate, preferring analysis over emotion. They love clarity and order but may come across as a bit starchy.
Natural allies and enemies abound. SOCIALIZERS see THINKERS as overly-analytical fuss-budgets. DIRECTORS would sooner die than turn into dull plodders like the RELATERS. THINKERS, while often drawn to RELATERS, can't understand the SOCIALIZER's lack of focus or the DIRECTOR's impatience. And RELATERS only wish everyone was as amiable as they.
The bottom line: Your communication is only as good as your understanding of the person you're communicating with.
By Tony Alessandra (excerpt from The Success Training Network)
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